Further sales slumps at national papers

The Times and The Daily Telegraph were the only paid-for UK newspapers to see an increase in year-on-year circulation last month, though only because of discounted sales.

“Bulk” copies, which are distributed at locations such as hotels and airports and are free to the reader, helped push The Times‘ circulation 1.46% higher to 446,463 and the Daily Telegraph by 2.44% to 469,436, according to the latest ABC figures.

Trinity Mirror’s national titles – the Daily Mirror, Daily Record, Sunday Mirror, People and Sunday Mail – suffered huge falls which the company attributed partly to cutting back on bulk copies.

The Daily Record sale is down 14.34% to 141,497 while the Daily Mirror lost 19.54% of its sales and now has a circulation of 617,730.

Metro, which is available free on public transport, increased its distribution by 9.8% and it remains on course to overtake The Sun as the UK daily newspaper with the biggest print run.

Among the Sundays, The Sunday Times fell 1.7% to 759,487, the Sunday Mail 15.89% to 151,366 and the Sunday Post 9.71% to 133,115.

The Scotsman and The Herald are classed as regional newspapers so do not appear in these figures.